Verisk Analytics VRSK

NASDAQ VRSK

$177.99 +2.50 (+1.42%)

As of: Sep 9, 2026 · 3:59 PM EDT

Key Stats

Market Cap23.26 Bn

P/E26.27

P/S7.42

Div. Yield0.01

Total Debt (Qtr)4.47 Bn

Revenue Growth (1y) (Qtr)4.36

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About

Verisk Analytics, Inc. provides data, analytics and technology solutions to clients in the insurance ecosystem. The company leverages proprietary data assets insurance industry expertise and technological expertise to deliver predictive analytics and decision support tools for rating underwriting claims catastrophe weather risk and other areas. Verisk Analytics, Inc. helps customers make better risk decisions and improve operating efficiency through integrated solutions that…

Revenue is generated primarily from annual subscriptions or long term agreements for the company’s solutions which represented approximately 81% of total revenue in 2024. The firm offers its products and services to insurance carriers reinsurers and related entities across the United States and internationally. Subscription based arrangements provide a steady and predictable revenue stream.

The company operates through the following segments: Insurance.

The Insurance segment provides property and casualty insurance solutions including underwriting power loss cost data catastrophe modeling claims management and life insurance services to help customers assess price and manage risk.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. holds a leading position in the insurance data and analytics market due to its extensive proprietary data assets and long standing relationships with insurers. The company competes with other statistical agents specialty technology firms and internal insurance company teams that develop proprietary models. Its competitive advantages include deep insurance expertise a scalable distribution network and the ability to integrate data analytics into client workflows.

The company serves the top 100 property and casualty insurers in the United States as well as 18 of the top 25 global reinsurance companies. Its customer base also includes domestic insurtech firms international insurers and various government agencies that use its risk assessment and emergency response information.

Investment Thesis

▲ Bull case

Verisk Analytics is strategically positioned to capitalize on the accelerating adoption of AI and agentic technologies across the insurance value chain, a catalyst not fully reflected in current guidance. Management highlighted that its role as a strategic co-development partner for a global insurer's digitally native underwriting entity represents a scalable blueprint for future partnerships, leveraging proprietary data, actuarial expertise, and emerging AI platforms like Verisk Synergy Studio. This initiative, born from a competitive RFP process against frontier model companies and technology providers, underscores Verisk's unique ability to bridge traditional risk analytics with next-generation automation—a capability competitors cannot easily replicate due to decades of contributory data accumulation and regulatory trust. The company emphasized that the majority of its innovation investments are generating incremental revenue streams rather than merely enhancing legacy pricing, as evidenced by over 30% revenue growth in enhanced aerial imagery offerings over the last two years and the onboarding of a sixth top-10 carrier to its digital media forensics solution this quarter. These AI-driven solutions address critical industry pain points such as fraud detection and property risk selection, with client trial activity and proof-of-concept volumes rising sharply—over 20 follow-up meetings were scheduled on augmented underwriting alone—indicating a robust pipeline that will convert to revenue as contractual governance complexities ease over time. Furthermore, the expansion of contributory data programs into excess and surplus lines, now representing over $15 billion in premium, and the addition of four new core lines carriers deepen Verisk's data moat, making its datasets increasingly indispensable as insurers seek to train proprietary AI models on high-quality, industry-standardized inputs. While near-term headwinds from low weather activity pressured transactional revenues, the durability of subscription revenues—now 84% of total revenue and growing at 7% OCC—provides a stable, high-margin foundation that compounds through multiyear renewals with annualized price increases averaging 4-5%, reflecting clients' recognition of Verisk's enduring value in an evolving risk landscape. This structural shift toward AI-integrated underwriting, supported by Verisk's cloud migration and data standardization efforts (including MCP protocol readiness), positions the company to capture long-term, recurring revenue from innovation-led solutions that are still early in their adoption cycle but exhibit strong traction with the largest carriers, a factor the market appears to be underestimating amid near-term margin volatility from AI investments and debt-funded buybacks.

Verisk Analytics is strategically positioned to capitalize on the accelerating adoption of AI and agentic technologies across the insurance value chain, a catalyst not fully reflected in current guidance. Management highlighted that its role as a strategic co-development partner for a global insurer's digitally native underwriting entity represents a scalable blueprint for future partnerships, leveraging proprietary data, actuarial expertise, and emerging AI platforms like Verisk Synergy Studio. This initiative, born from a competitive RFP process against frontier model companies and technology providers, underscores Verisk's unique ability to bridge traditional risk analytics with next-generation automation—a capability competitors cannot easily replicate due to decades of contributory data accumulation and regulatory trust. The company emphasized that the majority of its innovation investments are generating incremental revenue streams rather than merely enhancing legacy pricing, as evidenced by over 30% revenue growth in enhanced aerial imagery offerings over the last two years and the onboarding of a sixth top-10 carrier to its digital media forensics solution this quarter. These AI-driven solutions address critical industry pain points such as fraud detection and property risk selection, with client trial activity and proof-of-concept volumes rising sharply—over 20 follow-up meetings were scheduled on augmented underwriting alone—indicating a robust pipeline that will convert to revenue as contractual governance complexities ease over time. Furthermore, the expansion of contributory data programs into excess and surplus lines, now representing over $15 billion in premium, and the addition of four new core lines carriers deepen Verisk's data moat, making its datasets increasingly indispensable as insurers seek to train proprietary AI models on high-quality, industry-standardized inputs. While near-term headwinds from low weather activity pressured transactional revenues, the durability of subscription revenues—now 84% of total revenue and growing at 7% OCC—provides a stable, high-margin foundation that compounds through multiyear renewals with annualized price increases averaging 4-5%, reflecting clients' recognition of Verisk's enduring value in an evolving risk landscape. This structural shift toward AI-integrated underwriting, supported by Verisk's cloud migration and data standardization efforts (including MCP protocol readiness), positions the company to capture long-term, recurring revenue from innovation-led solutions that are still early in their adoption cycle but exhibit strong traction with the largest carriers, a factor the market appears to be underestimating amid near-term margin volatility from AI investments and debt-funded buybacks.

▼ Bear case

Verisk Analytics faces mounting pressure from structural shifts in the property and casualty insurance industry that could erode the durability of its subscription revenue base, a risk management acknowledged but did not fully quantify in its outlook. The company noted that 2025 marked one of the strongest underwriting results in years, driven by unusually low catastrophe losses and robust industry profitability, which has prompted carriers to shift focus from profitability to growth amid ample capital—intensifying competition and softening pricing, particularly in commercial property lines. This dynamic directly undermines Verisk's traditional value proposition, as carriers under pricing pressure may delay or reduce investments in non-essential data and analytics solutions, instead opting for cheaper internal alternatives or leveraging AI tools trained on their own data to bypass third-party providers. Management conceded that transactional revenues—comprising 16% of total revenue—declined 6.1% OCC due to low weather activity, but failed to address the deeper concern that this softness may persist beyond temporary weather patterns if carriers continue to prioritize growth over risk mitigation in a soft market, thereby reducing demand for Verisk's catastrophe and restoration solutions. Additionally, while Verisk highlighted its data governance expertise as a moat, the extended sales cycles for AI solutions—attributed to intellectual property, privacy, and compliance negotiations—reveal a growing friction point: as carriers develop in-house AI capabilities or partner directly with frontier model companies, they may question the necessity of Verisk's intermediary role, especially if they perceive its data as commoditizable through synthetic generation or alternative sourcing. The company's increased investment in AI and technology, while strategically necessary, is pressuring margins, with adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of only 60 basis points year-over-year despite operational leverage, suggesting that innovation costs are offsetting gains from cost discipline. Furthermore, the $1.5 billion accelerated share repurchase funded by $1 billion in senior notes and a $500 million term loan has increased leverage to 2.4x debt-to-adjusted EBITDA, elevating quarterly interest expense to $43 million (up from $36 million) and guiding for a full-period impact of $190–$200 million annually— a significant drag on free cash flow, which already declined 17% to $326 million due to nonrecurring tax effects and higher interest payments. This financial engineering to boost EPS via share count reduction, coupled with a rising effective tax rate (24.1% vs. 21.6% prior year) from reduced stock option benefits, risks creating a misleading earnings narrative while underlying cash generation weakens, a dichotomy the market may eventually penalize if innovation-driven revenue fails to materialize at scale to justify the heightened leverage and margin pressure.

Verisk Analytics faces mounting pressure from structural shifts in the property and casualty insurance industry that could erode the durability of its subscription revenue base, a risk management acknowledged but did not fully quantify in its outlook. The company noted that 2025 marked one of the strongest underwriting results in years, driven by unusually low catastrophe losses and robust industry profitability, which has prompted carriers to shift focus from profitability to growth amid ample capital—intensifying competition and softening pricing, particularly in commercial property lines. This dynamic directly undermines Verisk's traditional value proposition, as carriers under pricing pressure may delay or reduce investments in non-essential data and analytics solutions, instead opting for cheaper internal alternatives or leveraging AI tools trained on their own data to bypass third-party providers. Management conceded that transactional revenues—comprising 16% of total revenue—declined 6.1% OCC due to low weather activity, but failed to address the deeper concern that this softness may persist beyond temporary weather patterns if carriers continue to prioritize growth over risk mitigation in a soft market, thereby reducing demand for Verisk's catastrophe and restoration solutions. Additionally, while Verisk highlighted its data governance expertise as a moat, the extended sales cycles for AI solutions—attributed to intellectual property, privacy, and compliance negotiations—reveal a growing friction point: as carriers develop in-house AI capabilities or partner directly with frontier model companies, they may question the necessity of Verisk's intermediary role, especially if they perceive its data as commoditizable through synthetic generation or alternative sourcing. The company's increased investment in AI and technology, while strategically necessary, is pressuring margins, with adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of only 60 basis points year-over-year despite operational leverage, suggesting that innovation costs are offsetting gains from cost discipline. Furthermore, the $1.5 billion accelerated share repurchase funded by $1 billion in senior notes and a $500 million term loan has increased leverage to 2.4x debt-to-adjusted EBITDA, elevating quarterly interest expense to $43 million (up from $36 million) and guiding for a full-period impact of $190–$200 million annually— a significant drag on free cash flow, which already declined 17% to $326 million due to nonrecurring tax effects and higher interest payments. This financial engineering to boost EPS via share count reduction, coupled with a rising effective tax rate (24.1% vs. 21.6% prior year) from reduced stock option benefits, risks creating a misleading earnings narrative while underlying cash generation weakens, a dichotomy the market may eventually penalize if innovation-driven revenue fails to materialize at scale to justify the heightened leverage and margin pressure.

Geographical Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer group

Peer Comparison

Companies in the Financial Data and Analytics

S.No.	Ticker	Company	match	Market Cap	P/E	P/S	Total Debt (Qtr)
1	SPGI	S&P Global Inc.	primary	124.03 Bn	23.33	7.69	17.74 Bn
2	MCO	Moodys Corp /De/	primary	82.83 Bn	29.60	10.15	7.52 Bn
3	MSCI	MSCI Inc.	primary	40.50 Bn	29.82	12.15	6.38 Bn
4	VRSK	Verisk Analytics, Inc.	primary	23.26 Bn	26.27	7.42	4.47 Bn
5	FDS	Factset Research Systems Inc	primary	10.11 Bn	17.87	4.15	1.89 Bn
6	MORN	Morningstar, Inc.	primary	7.50 Bn	17.76	2.92	1.73 Bn
7	MA	Mastercard Inc	secondary	501.67 Bn	30.86	14.30	24.64 Bn
8	CME	Cme Group Inc.	secondary	99.04 Bn	23.17	14.62	3.42 Bn

Verisk Analytics VRSK

About

Investment Thesis

Segments Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Geographical Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer Comparison

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